F Vargas-Lara and FW Starr and JF Douglas, VIII INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
ON TIMES OF POLYMERS AND COMPOSITES: FROM AEROSPACE TO NANOTECHNOLOGY,
1736, UNSP 020080 (2016).

DOI: 10.1063/1.4949655

We utilize molecular dynamics simulations (MD) and the path-integration
program ZENO to quantify hydrodynamic radius (R-h) fluctuations of
spherical symmetric gold nanoparticles (NPs) decorated with single-
stranded DNA chains (ssDNA). These results are relevant to understanding
fluctuation-induced interactions among these NPs and macromolecules such
as proteins. In particular, we explore the effect of varying the ssDNA-
grafted NPs structural parameters, such as the chain length (L), chain
persistence length (l(p)), NP core size (R), and the number of chains
(N) attached to the nanoparticle core. We determine R-h fluctuations by
calculating its standard deviation (sigma R-h) of an ensemble of ssDNA-
grafted NPs configurations generated by MD. For the parameter space
explored in this manuscript, sigma R-h shows a peak value as a function
of N, the amplitude of which depends on L, l(p) and R, while the
broadness depends on R.